Theater department performs ‘The Crucible’

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Every year juniors in English 11 study “The Crucible”. This year, however, their class aligned with the theater department’s performance of the play.

On Oct. 18, the classes attended the performance of “The Crucible” at the Memorial Auditorium after reading the play in class.

“They’ll come in with a pretty established knowledge of the play and then they’ll get to see our version of it,” theater teacher Greg Shaw said. “It should just give them a deeper understanding of art and how it can bring things to life.”

Along with PHS, four other schools brought their students to the Memorial Auditorium to see the play.There were about 600 students total.

“I [was] excited to have other schools come to our shows and to be able to give them that experience too, so it’s not just something happening in Pittsburg,” sophomore Emma Noonoo said. “When you’re actually able to see the play and hear the exact same words you’re reading in class and see how [the characters] act, it really helps you to see the story.”

Shaw put his own spin on “The Crucible” by not providing an exact timeline. The costumes and set was modern-day themed instead of Puritan, like portrayed in the original play.

“What we [were] doing is trying to allow an audience to look at the piece for what it is,” Shaw said. “The interesting tie into “The Crucible” is all of the similarities that happen in several different situations throughout our history.”

The cast modernized some of the characters so the audience would view them and the play as more modern, and the characters were portrayed without exact ages.

“

When you see the character on stage as a black female instead of a white 60 year-old man, it changes the perspective of the audience on the character and it shows them in a different light.”

— Emma NooNoo

“You don’t know if that [character] right there is 20 or 83. We’re doing it as an eye-opener for the [audience],” said Franchesca Brownhanney, who plays Mary Warren, said.

Noonoo played the role of Deputy Governor Danforth. This role was originally meant to be male, but the gender was changed for this production.

“When you see the character on stage as a black female instead of a white 60 year-old man, it changes the perspective of the audience on the character and it shows them in a different light,” Noonoo said.

Shaw said the cast of “The Crucible” had many discussions during practice about how the play relates to today.

“This is a relevant piece. It’s impressive to me that a piece that’s closing in on 100 years old is still relevant today,” Shaw said. “History repeats itself in different forms.”